National Defence committee  No, they can't at all.

National Defence committee  The issue, sir, is one of doctor-patient confidentiality. The policy is that if a soldier were diagnosed with anything, quite frankly, physical or mental, the commanding officer, the chain of command, would be advised of the employment limitations. They would be advised of such things as that the soldier shouldn't carry a weapon or that they needed some time off or, back at home, that they needed to come into work for only half days, and those kinds of things.

National Defence committee  At the end of the day, it is the doctor who has the final say. In the medical chain of command there are certainly checks and balances, but at the end of the day it is a medical decision.

National Defence committee  It was interesting that as a result of that suicide bombing attack, a young CIDA officer's first concern when she climbed out of the vehicle that had rolled over two and a half times was the impact it would have on CIDA's policy of letting her travel outside the wire.

National Defence committee  In general, I think there is much better service than there was in the past. I know assisting officers dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs get exceptionally speedy service. When there have been serious injuries or death in theatre, I haven't heard any complaints in western Canada that people haven't been getting an exceptional level of service.

National Defence committee  I know the chief of military personnel is looking at military family resource centres with the aim of improving them and making them even better than they are today. I will acknowledgethat there are probably different levels of service across the country, depending on where you are.

National Defence committee  I had a 25-year-old personal assistant who banged on my door at 5:30 every morning to make sure I went for a run, so that's how I dealt with it. I found that not only physically helpful, but mentally helpful. Did you do anything, Simon?

National Defence committee  No, sir. Thank you for letting me clarify that point.

National Defence committee  There's probably somebody sitting behind me from parliamentary affairs who's quite concerned with what I've just said, but that's what I would do.

National Defence committee  The issue clearly is that in a perfect world the soldiers would have absolute faith in their chain of command and their chain of command would be able to deal with all those challenges that soldiers face and make sure they got the proper support. My comment was specifically that if a soldier did come to an MP, did come to their representative, that the representative can then play a role in helping that individual.

National Defence committee  Not to be glib, but I would suggest you phone the parliamentary secretary, and he would help you to deal with the issue to get the right access.

National Defence committee  That's how I would do it if I were you.

National Defence committee  They are indeed. The program is five days. You arrive the first day and leave on the last day. On days two and three there are formal presentations in the morning that you have to attend. In the afternoons, and on the fourth day, there are subsidized recreational activities people can participate in.

National Defence committee  It's depending on when the flights arrive. There need to be three days of formal activities. For instance, we arrived on my flight at 10 o'clock on the first day. So we actually had an afternoon and an evening. The fifth day was a write-off because we went to the airport at about 4:30 in the morning.

National Defence committee  Sir, I would say that's very appropriate. Phone the commander of that service, the nearest base commander, whether he's army, navy, or air force. That's the approach I would take. That will ensure it gets attention.